I Believe I Can Fly

Under normal circumstances, comparing Pete Mulligan to Michael Jordan would be ludicrous, unless we were talking about the Michael Jordan that played minor league baseball for the Chicago White Sox.  But what Pete accomplished on Sunday was akin to all of MJ's career highlights, rolled into one.  Pete shaved 27 minutes off his previous personal best in the marathon, an astronomical improvement, and in the process, achieved the new (and more difficult) qualifying standard for the Boston Marathon.  Pete's time of 3:24:15 put him inside the 3:25 time limit for his age group, so, with some good fortune, Pete will be on the line in April 2013. 

Pete at the Hon Run 2007

That performance was enough to earn Pete the Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, but it wasn't without some stiff competition.

Pete raced at the Wineglass Marathon in Corning, NY, a race known for its fast times and propensity for bestowing Boston Qualifying times upon its competitors.  A point-to-point, downhill race, this year's edition took place in wet, chilly conditions that seemed to be too much for some, but just right for others.  And apparently, the "others" were everyone that we run with.  Meg McNew's previous marathon best was a 3:17.  She lopped off 11 minutes, running 3:06:43 and finishing 8th among women. 

In the inaugural half marathon, Carly Page showed her fitness by not just winning the race, but doing it in style, and running a 6 minute PR (1:25:48).  I mistakenly cited her position on the Top Ten All Time list, supplanting Meg McNew's best, but was corrected and I apologize to both of them for the error! 

Terry Decker also competed in the half, but was a little disappointed with his result - a 1:29.  He felt he was better than that effort, and I think so too, so I hope he can get on track for his upcoming marathon.  His fiance, Molly Eagen, ran her first marathon and went 4:23, which is a great debut time.

Also earning wins this weekend were Arjun Majumdar and New Becky Parks, in two lowkey, local 5k's.  Arjun ran the Marian House 5k on Saturday at Lake Montebello.  The awful idea of having a two loop course led to Arjun and his main competitor having to weave through walkers towards the end of the race while engaging in a sprint to the finish.  Mostly, our biggest question was who is this guy that is able to keep up with Arjun in the last 400m of a 5k?  Apparently his balls were exposed, too, which had to have been quite a sight.  In any event, it was hard to tell who was going to win but in the last few strides, Arjun got him, running a great 16:39 and earning his first W in a long, long time.  For NBP, who ran the not-accurately-timed-or-measured Sowebo Landmark 5k on Sunday, she of course won and was not pleased with the effort.  Or the shoddy organization.  But what did you expect, it's a race in Southwest Baltimore!

The Falls Road 15k was held on Sunday and thanks to everyone who helped out, even if some of you were "on the clock" for the store.  Alyssa Godesky finished 2nd among women behind soon-to-be-newcomer-to-the-group Kellen McGee.  Alyssa had to run before the race, and then was supposed to pick up the 2nd half of the race.  She tackled the hills of the course and ran a great time.  Just behind was PJ Anderer, and then Kelly Meier in 3rd.  In 6th was Sara Damiano, who joined us for track tonight.  Christine Trzcinski and Karen Menge rounded our our troupe of ladies who stormed the race. 

Lillian Pinault ran the Freedom's Run Half Marathon in 1:42:45, about 7 minutes faster than she was expecting, and Dan Miranda doubled in back-to-back half marathons, running a 1:18:43 in a 2nd place effort at a half marathon in New Hampshire on Saturday, before flying back Saturday night and running the half marathon leg of a half ironman on Sunday in Columbia (where he ran about 1:20).  Not a bad weekend!

Out in Oregon, Matty Blaze Jablonski was racing in his first ever big boy college race, the Bill Dellinger Invitational, an 8k cross country race at U of O.  Matt finished 41st in a stacked field (every race will be stacked for him from now on) in a great debut time of 24:45.  At another college xc race, the Paul Short Invite, on Friday, Tristram Thomas finished 122nd in 27:39.

Our final competitor this weekend was Ben Ingram, who was looking forward to competing in his first ever half ironman at the inaugural Poconos 70.3.  The only problem was the river they were using to stage the swim was surging, and at 14 feet, the park said the swim was a no-go.  So the race became a bike-run, with a 55 mile ride and 13.1 mile run, and competitors were to go off every couple of seconds.  Ben wrote up his race report on his blog, but basically in this type of race he is going to crush almost every time, and his result was a 3rd place AG finish, which earned him a spot to next year's IM 70.3 World Championship!  However, since he just registered for IM Wisconsin, which is the same day, he had to pass.  Must be nice to have that option! 

As mentioned in the email, in addition to our PDAW, we have two new awards that will be popping up from time to time:

The NOS Award goes to the athlete who punched it at just the right time, and this week it went to Arjun.

The AutoZone "In the Zone" Award goes to an athlete who seems to be hitting his or her stride, and this week it went to Carly Page.

Good turnout at the track tonight, it was obviously pitch black just after we started the workout, which is unfortunate but we'll just have to get used to it!  Also as I put in the email, the next few weeks we are going to start winding down.  For the most part, the few of you that have marathons this fall know what you're doing, and there are enough of you to keep working out together for a while.  For everyone else, I think you're mostly satisfied just getting in some quicker running, so the workouts will be fun.  Also, somehow Space Jam was already a label for me to use.

RM Memorial 5k

In full disclosure I'm typing this while watching Michael Jordan's greatest piece of work: Space Jam...

There were tons of results this weekend but rather than type up each one I will let you read the email and the results on the right hand side. This post will largely be about the RM Memorial 5k which was held on Saturday between rains, on the track at Goucher College. We had 20 runners or so, split into two heats and it was very competitive.

Heat #1: Barf took off at the gun, but after about 200m Mellow, Kristen Till and Eileen had worked back up to him. They ran together for the first mile (5:43) and then Eileen went to work. She had a small advantage over Kristen at 2 miles (11:33), and powered to the finish in 18:08. It was as impressive a race as I've ever seen her run. Kristen was 10 seconds back at 18:18. Mellow came through in 18:51, and not much after that Diane finished strong in 19:12 - her fastest time since college. At 19:39 and 19:55, Alex and Barf finished, respectively, and shortly after that Lisa and Lauren came through at 20:15 and 20:34. Both ran great considering they were thinking they'd run slower than that. Chrissie was just jogging in preparation of her race the next day, which she killed. So she ran 22:02 and Little Claire, in advance celebration of her birthday, ran 22:09. Alix Ruth was running a solo effort for 3.1 miles and managed a 30 second PR! Her time of 23:49 was pretty awesome.

Heat #2: This was the baller heat, with a couple 2:20 something marathoners (including one who ran at US Olympic Trials). I was pretty excited that the stars aligned and we were fortunate to have Karl Dusen, Kyle Smits, Jeff Gaudette, Mike Smith and our very own Ben Ingram out there racing. The pace seemed pedestrian at the 400m (74-75) but then it dropped from there. Karl, Kyle and Jeff came through the 1600 in 4:48-4:50 with Ben and Mike a few seconds back. Jeff's calf had been giving him trouble since the previous weekend's Knights of Columbus 10k, so he wisely dropped after the mile. Kyle and Karl continued, trading the lead for the majority of the race, before Karl opened a small gap with 600m to go. He held Kyle off, sprinting across the line in 15:06 to Kyle's 15:14. Mike Smith had a real strong last mile and ran 15:35, and Ben faded but stayed tough, running 15:52. Jake Marren had the unenviable task of running a solo 16:41 effort, and Brusewitz had to get real tough to squeak under 17 (16:57). Jeff Rumbaugh ran 17:48 and John Blatz came through in 18:14. Dave Berardi ran the whole thing, which I didn't realize he was doing so I didn't time him, and Tank ran a 21:5x.

It was really a great event and worth the suffering sitting in the car to come down for it. So much thanks to my dad for driving me down and back in the course of 12 hours. Thanks to the folks that showed up to help out or spectate: Arjun, Melissa, Ella, Mr. and Mrs. Marren, Kristen Till's husband and kids, Marty (Lisa's boyfriend), OJ, Anna, Justin, Beth, and anyone else I may have missed. We'll come back in 2010 with the RM Classic 5k.

Here's a little note from my dad:

It was so great to see everyone whom I had met before and to meet those for the first time...although I feel like I know all of you as Ryan speaks of you all the time. Do I have everyone memorized? Of course not, but will work on it. For some reason however, "Mellow Mike" is an easy one to recall. I am glad we got down to the Baltimore area. You are all so fortunate to have this remarkable friendship. Never forget its importance.

So there were a bunch of other races, as I mentioned, including Chrissie's great half marathon, and a few triathlons as well.

But there can only be one Purple Drink Athlete of the Week and, while we could just give it to Chrissie everytime she toes the line, this week we're going to honor Alix Ruth for her 30 second improvement over 5k. That's really impressive considering she's just started really running this year. Hope to see great things from her this weekend at PDR!

TNT this week: we'll have two workouts. One is longer in nature for those of you doing longer races, and one will be shorter but will be based on the same amount of time so everyone can run together. Workout #1 - 5x1600m with 2:30 recovery. Run them quick. Workout #2 - 5x(800-400). Start the 800 with those doing the miles, and then take a lap off. When they go past for their last lap wait a few seconds and then go, run your 400. Then you'll have 2:30 off before your next set.